


At Night She Lives

by rosesinheavylight



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, dream machine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-20 08:43:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8243320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesinheavylight/pseuds/rosesinheavylight
Summary: But only when she dreams...





	1. Build Them A...

**Author's Note:**

> I really want to know who the "she" that Rabbit sang about in "Dream Machine" is. It might be herself, and it might even be Mal-ory (that pink QWERTY interface from Malfunction), but I wanted to play with the ideas that run through my head when I listen to the song (which is frequently because it's my favorite from the album).

Peter Walter the Sixth pulled the goggles from his face and marveled at his newest small contraption. He didn't know its purpose just yet, but imagine the potential it had!

The robotics expert flicked the switch on its back, and the little doorknob-bronze creature started to slowly skitter across the table, making an eager squeaking noise with every little jerk of its joints. He stood back as it paused for a moment, bracing its four knees.

_SNAP!_ The contraption did a quick flip and resumed the merry squeaking and walking across the table. He let out a small chuckle, giddy about the little toy that he could add to the rest of his latest trinkets, including the infamous "G-Whiz" giraffe robot he had put together.

He was still a bit sad that none of the robots liked them, but instead thought of it with a _yet_ at the end. They didn't like them _yet._

Six quickly stopped the toy from walking off the table, and turned it off for the moment, feeling content with the successful run of its mechanics. He gave a pensive look to the wall on the other side of the room, and then considered broadening his horizon. All he had been doing with his natural talent for creating and maintaining robotic figures is making little guys.

He wondered if there had been any other attempts since Rabbit, Spine, and Hatchworth. Could his father, his grandfather, make an automaton as complex and durable as the three robots? He couldn't remember them ever speaking of such an endeavor.

...Could _he?_

His phone then buzzed from his back pocket, and he was brought back from his wandering thoughts.

**New Text Message from MAL-ORY.**  
_Hi. What are you doing?_

\---

"Bots...I give you my newest creation: Rufus!" Six held out the little bronze figure, and all three automatons leaned in on it with their eyebrows raised.

"What is it?" Rabbit asked, slowly sticking a red finger out to touch it.  
"What does it do, exactly?" The Spine glanced up to Six and questioned.  
"Hello, Rufus." Hatchworth greeted the toy.

"Watch now, he's a real card." Six set down Rufus and flipped the switch on its back again. It began to creep across the table, and in a moment of silence The Spine crossed his arms and observed skeptically, "I don't know, Peter. It walks very similar to G-Whiz. One could even say that you've made an exact cop-"

_SNAP!_

"WHOA!!" Rabbit gasped, "D-d-didya see _that?"_ Hatchworth adjusted his glasses and murmured, "It...flips?"

"Yes, yes!" Six beamed, "Isn't that amusing?" The Spine found his doubts quelled, and narrowed his eyes at Rufus in anticipation for it to perform the action again. His siblings dropped to their knees and held the edges of the table it walked across, watching closely like children.

"But this little prodigy is not my only announcement, bots. I have been considering a new project, one different than the ones I have been taking up." Six warned, and The Spine was the only one who could pull his eyes from Rufus. He asked, "Oh yeah? What are you plotting, exactly?"

"Another automaton."

"...Really?" The silver robot rose his eyebrows, eyes flickering for a moment as he hummed, "You mean, a new addition to our band?" The other two looked up in shock, and Six quickly assured, "No, no. I have noticed something, that us Walters haven't done something so great as artificial, sentient life in years."

"Well, yeah!" Rabbit shrugged, "You c-can't get any bet-better than us, Six." Hatchworth gave her a look as Six then agreed, "Yes, yes...but hear me out, you three: how would you feel if I attempted to put together a fourth?"

They looked at each other and with unsure expressions they slowly tried to answer on behalf of themselves. "Uhh...we don't know...it wouldn't hurt...?"

It was all the assurance he needed, and the engineer turned on his heels. "Well, it looks like I have some work to do. Don't get into too much trouble now, you three! I'll be working well into tonight and prefer little distractions, as usual."

\---

"This isn't going to end well." The Spine sighed when him and the other bots were alone together, sitting around one of the parlors of the Walter Manor in boredom as they waited for some sort of activity to arise. Rabbit batted her eyelashes at him and agreed, "Yeah, Pete's been a bit...m-much with trying to create new robots. Rufus is what? The _f-fourth_ one he's made in the last year?"

"It's because every other Walter before him has done something spectacular that makes their iteration so remembered." Hatchworth added, "I don't blame Peter Walter the Sixth for aquiring a motivation to be just as grand as them."

"He's done enough, though! H-he lost his fa-" Rabbit began to point out, sticking a finger playfully onto her white cheek, but The Spine interrupted, "Well, he isn't going to achieve a name for himself by playing with our function's blueprints."

The robot became more animated, which was strange, guesturing to his chest and speaking rather loud. "Creating an automaton is more than just...putting a robot together. We know that better than anyone else. It almost feels as if Peter doesn't know how going about an automaton will create something so intricate and complicated. It's the closest a human can get to making something artificial, but still human in its nature."

"Other than just making an actual human? The _o-naturale_ way? That's so much more easier." Rabbit grumbled. Hatchworth looked to the ground and sighed, "Rabbit, you and I both know that he's got no interest in that. It's rather disappointing..."

"The point is that we should've told him to think against the idea, and now we have a world of destruction ahead of us." The Spine suggested. In the heavy silence that followed his claim, Hatchworth then asked, "But what if it isn't?"

The two looked to him with surprise as he went on, "He has said that it has never been done since the Colonel made us! How can we be so sure he won't be successful in this so-called fourth?"

Rabbit and The Spine glanced at each other, and then looked to him with big eyes and nothing to say.


	2. Left Unseen

The next few weeks had been agonizing for the robots to watch unfold. Between their rehearsing and chores, Six only left his office every seventy-two hours or so. Whenever he showed his mask to daylight, he was constantly yawning and refusing to speak more than four sentences when visiting.

As feared, he wasn't saying anything about what lied behind his office doors, and the Workshop was guarded with more locks and QWERTY. As The Spine put it, anyone who could stand the annoyance of that interface would deserve to see what was being so overly hidden.

Rabbit and Hatchworth noticed with the passing of each day, their lanky silver comrade grew more and more agitated about his sixth-generation human. He would tip his hat down whenever the engineer walked into the room, folded hands to rest on his mouth and hide his black lips frowning. Steam would begin hissing like a kettle when he left. The other two could even guess he was losing stasis hours to being angry about what he feared.

"Y-you can't be a st-st-stickler about it forever, buddy." Rabbit finally pointed out, finding his bitter attitude tiresome. The automaton only responded with more of his literal steaming to relieve his stress -- but in all honesty, it was done to no avail.

\--- 

Six shook off the urge to sleep and whirred the power drill one more time, driving a snug screw into the golden plating that he tinged with silver accents and swirls like the antique-esque look Rabbit wore from time to time. Underneath the plating, gears that had never moved before shuddered as the entire feminine frame of its host jerked with pressure, clanging as the resonance lasted and he took the drill bit off.

The torso and head were completed. He found himself giddy, standing back to admire his job just as he had when Rufus walked for the first time, but then he realized his product was only 50% put together. "...Right." He stammered to himself, replacing his goggles over his eyes, "Still got work to do on her."

He looked over at the switch that sat next to his phone, which buzzed with another text message. He didn't bother himself with it, and pulled the switch in hopes it would work. Such small mechanics went into the tinier robots, so he anticipated this little beauty wouldn't react right away.

Her chin lifted up for a moment, but the face showed no emotion as she slowly looked to the ceiling with empty eyes. Her optics' lights didn't work as she stood still for a moment, buzzing in a straining attempt to function like she was always meant to...but finally, he pushed the switch down again and she fell back to being lifeless and a husk of a personality.

"Not to worry, you'll get there." Six soothed the frame, "Funny, I've had dreams about you working, eh? It's like it's meant to be." His phone buzzed again, but he didn't hear as he walked back over and tried to find the disruption, holding up her face and flicking his fingernails against her optics in hopes the bulbs would spark.

They did, and glowed an electric purple and aquamarine against his goggles. He beamed, "There she is! Hear me, old girl?"

The robot said nothing. His phone buzzed a third time.

 **3 New Text Messages from MAL-ORY.**  
_Peter, don't turn her on. :|_  
_Don't!_  
_DON'T DO IT. :(_


End file.
